Friday, 10 April 2015

A day out to...IKEA!

The weather in Dorset has been gorgeous this week so we made the most of it by visiting IKEA...! (The obvious place for sunny weather...a giant building with hardly any windows!)The two disabled adults I support love mooching round IKEA whilst hunting for bargains and i'm currently in the middle of buying my first flat so we combined the two and made our way to Southampton!

We quite often go to IKEA and have never had any accessibility issues. As you arrive the ground floor car park has loads of large parking spots which is perfect if you drive a mini bus like us. If you cant park in the disabled spots there is always loads of normal spots near the lifts so you dont have to go far to get to the entrance. The entrance is located on the 4th floor so if you cant use the escalator you can use the lifts. At the Southampton IKEA there are 4 lifts which are all huge! There is plenty of room for anyone using a wheelchair and customers using the large trolleys.Once at the entrance you have to enter through the revolving doors which i found terrifying...im convinced they move faster as soon as you step in lol!Inside the building there is plenty of room to move round in wheelchairs without feeling like you're in the way or you need to rush. The restaurant is well set out with a variety of different tables and chairs which is good as we often struggle to find tables that are high enough to get a wheelchair under but at IKEA we've never had this problem.The staff are normally very willing to help too and will carry your food over to your table if required. Located in the restaurant and on several other floors are clean and spacious toilets including large disabled toilets.The only downside we found in IKEA is that once in, there is only one small lift covering all floors so there is often a bit of a wait and can be a bit of a squeeze - this may be different for all stores though.When you do eventually get to the bottom floor where all the flat packed furniture is located there is always staff to willing to help you lift heavy stock and take them to the tills for you where again the till staff are always willing to help!Staff will also help take your shopping back to your vehicle for you if needed....but if you're stubborn like me you'll insist on doing it yourself! This ended with me pushing a trolley loaded up with furniture and pushing a wheelchair at the same time - i ended up crashing into the lift with the lady i support in hysterics laughing at me ha!But we had a brilliant day filled with shopping for some bright cushions and kitchen stuff we didnt know we needed and eating my body weight in Swedish meatballs!